Fjords and Macaronis

This morning started early again, with a 6am wake-up call so that we could see as we did a "ship cruise" through the Drygalski Fjord. Ship cruising means that the ship is getting us close to whatever it is that we want to see, particularly in places where we couldn't land. In this case, the fjord is at the junction of two tectonic plates, and the fjord is very deep between them. There are multiple glaciers on the mountains which line the fjord, which were quite beautiful. Most of the glaciers on the sides of the fjord (which is essentially a long, relatively straight cove, in this case it's about 6 miles long) surrounded by mountains on either side. At the end of the fjord is a glacier that comes right down to the water. They say the fjord has gotten 2km longer in the last 10-15 years as the glacier has receded. The ice was quite beautiful – some was blue in places – and there was more ice floating in the water as well. We're at the southern end of South Georgia and it's been interesting to see how things change.

After the ship cruise, we had breakfast and then geared up for our landing in Cooper Bay. This landing site has a pretty small beach so the attraction is to hike through yet more tussock grasses, fending off more fur seals, all in an effort to see the nesting macaroni penguins. What we didn't realize was that hiking up was only the first part – and it wasn't nearly as challenging as yesterday's hike up the tussock – but then once on top, we had to hike down on the other side to get close to the colony. Hiking down is much harder on the knees, and it's often tough to see how big that next step is going to be. We've realized the value of hiking poles on this trip, and fortunately the staff usually has hiking poles out which are there so you have something with which to fend off the seals. If a fur seal growls at you or starts to charge with his mouth open and teeth bared, you point the pole at him and hope he stops. If he doesn't, they say you should tickle his whiskers, which are apparently quite sensitive. Luckily, it's never gotten quite that far for us, but we have had them stop just at the end of the pole (which is probably 4 feet long). That may not sound all that close, but trust me, it is quite close enough!

So anyway, after the hiking, during which of course we get too hot, so we had to stop at some point to strip off various layers of clothing, hats, gloves, etc., we did arrive at the macaroni penguin colony. They are interesting birds because they have the bright yellow / orange plumage on their heads, and they are quite the climbers. We were about 200 feet above sea level, and so were they. So they essentially come out of the ocean, and proceed to walk / hop up the cliffs to make their nests and hang out. We did see some chicks, but not sure any of the photos were all that great. After about an hour and a half at the colony, we decided to head back to the landing in hopes of doing a zodiac cruise along the bottom of the colony. We'd done one a couple days prior at another macaroni colony that worked very well. But by now it was only 30 minutes until the last zodiac so we got only a brief cruise on our way back to the ship with Ted Cheeseman at the helm of our zodiac. During our zodiac back to the ship, we had multiple porpoising seals behind us that were a lot of fun to watch. They like to play in the wake of the zodiac.

During lunch the ship was battened down for sea voyage and the seasickness bags are placed on the railings in the hallway (which is never a good sign – it means rough seas ahead!). We have yet to experience seasickness but it's clear that many people are not quite so lucky. Most people take some medication – either a scopolamine patch, dilantin, dramamine, a relief band that you wear like a watch, or something else to stave it off.

After lunch, we headed to the bridge to watch the waves and see any interesting wildlife which might be flying around. There were some light-mantled sooty albatross which are beautiful, along with prions, black-browed albatross, etc. But what was more fun to watch was the people standing on the bow getting sprayed by the water coming up as we broke through the waves. Then we saw a couple of pretty large tabular icebergs. One was off the port side (the left side), and was relatively tall and kind of pointed on top The other was more directly in front and just to the starboard side (the right side) and this one was very flat – you could just barely see it floating above the water. We expect to see more in the coming days.

Seas right now are 3-5 meter swells (that's about 10-16 feet) so it's certainly rougher than it's been so far. The ship is doing more pitching front to back whereas previously it was more rolling side to side. If you're seasick, I'm not sure which is worse. So we dumped our photos onto a hard drive (we're up to 5,900 so far, many less than our pre-trip estimate) and took a nap this afternoon, but when we heard there were cookies in the bar, we hopped right up to get some! But let's just say that the dining room was not nearly so crowded this evening for dinner!

We are making our way to the South Orkneys, where we hope to make a landing sometime on Sunday. We had expected to arrive Sunday morning but now with the wind at our bow, in addition to making a rougher voyage, it makes for a slower voyage. So we get to experience the rolling ship for longer. At any rate, the schedule for tomorrow is quite light. Breakfast, lunch and dinner with lectures to be announced, if any.

Keep your fingers crossed that the weather improves soon and that we stay seasick-free! With the schedule light tomorrow, we should be able to go through our photos from the last few days and post a few more.